healing fish put it best when she said, "This is officially the day the snark died."

The above is clearly a poor imitation of the type of entry you see at Fandom_Wank. F_W represents the worst of fandom and really, humanity in general. It is a testament to the fact that when you get a large group of people together, they will inevitably self-destruct. People are petty and oversensitive and spiteful and bitter and really very horrible creatures.

But I'm not here to rant about F_W. Not really. I'd like to do the converse. Inverse. Proverse. Multiverse. I dropped my logic class.

I don't know that I've been as passionate about a show as I am about Veronica Mars. It was very unexpected, because the show didn't sound like something I would be into, and I didn't really identify with any of the characters. But I fell madly in love with the show anyway. Maybe because I needed something to love. Maybe because I needed something to love that needed my love, unlike Lost, which is loved by many more.

I should be this crazy about Buffy and Angel and Firefly. But I didn't really join Buffy fandom until late in the game, when most people weren't crazy about the show anymore. And I think love, like wank, is self-perpetuating. It's hard to seize passion from a passionless bunch. And before, when it was up to the quality of the show to wow me, I was just me. Just one person. Same went for Angel, pretty much. I didn't contribute to the gift basket following the cancellation news. And I honestly didn't really love Firefly until near the end. I didn't end up actually getting involved in any of the Save Our Show campaigns.

Wonderfalls could have engendered VM-like devotion, I think, had it stayed on the air, injecting new life into the fandom every week. I pestered the DVD Request Lady for that show. I made an infinitesimal contribution to dachelle's Wonderfalls Animal Adoption Project. I paid for about four feathers.

Now I'm writing "Veronica Mars is smarter than me" on all my money, sending doctored $2 bills to various entertainment bigwigs, and filking songs for Kristen Bell.

But I'm not here to write about me. Okay, I am, but that part's over now.

The popularity of Fandom_Wank is not surprising. We love to accentuate the negative. We thrive on scandal. We pay attention to the bad.

And you know what? I don't care why we do it. I just want it to stop.

Because the other side of the coin is glorious. You have fans pitching in to buy the Angel cast and crew a gift basket for five years of hard work. You have dachelle raising over two hundred dollars in the name of Wonderfalls to adopt zoo animals. You have, year after year, giant fan gatherings that raise money for charities. And now you have a pillowcase for wee Kristen Bell, which went from idea to conception in less than four hours. It was very "Hey, let's fly Nilly to America!"

These kinds of things make me feel good about the world. They make me feel like the human race is worth saving, that we're not all just a bunch of assholes out to destroy the Earth.

For my teaching class last week, I led a discussion group on the social context of television. I love how a television show can bring so many different kinds of people together, from all over the world. It connects them whether they know it or not. And I love that when they get together, beautiful things can happen. Dreams can become reality. We are a powerful force, you see. We are resourceful and intelligent and we have far too much time on our hands.

And we are good. That is what I want to say. I wish there were a community dedicated to pointing this out. Highlighting all the great things that can happen when crazy people obsessed with their television shows have a nice idea. Showing that fans, with their passion for television, truly do have big hearts. Proving that fandom isn't all wank.

But I know it wouldn't be very popular, and that makes me sad.

In any case, I'm proud of and happy about our pillow talk yesterday. The whole endeavor made me smile so much my face hurt.Current Mood:happyCurrent Music: Dandy Warhols - We Used to Be Friends

I like reading this because I know many people who think that the internet is only full of dangerous and un-nice people. And that's because you usually only read about the dangerous and un-nice ones. I think this is an adorable idea. It reminds me of my love and devotion to "The West Wing." Maybe I should send Brad Whitford a token of my affection.

The popularity of Fandom_Wank is not surprising. We love to accentuate the negative. We thrive on scandal. We pay attention to the bad.

It's also easy to fall into the trap of thinking that there's some something special about standing 'outside' of something and making fun of it from a position of 'disinvolvement'.

I've got an entire subcription's worth of personal issues about online communication and stuff, but I agree there's something special going on with the Veronica Mars-TWOP community right now. It's also very nice that CB is so supportive of the show, the fans, and the campaign efforts; other mods don't have any patience for that stuff. (e.g., Strega, who wouldn't even allow discussion of the Save-Angel campaigns. At all. Anywhere.)

I love reading Fandom_Wank, but only when I want to get depressed. 'Cause, really, that is what it does to you. You read all the damn kerfuffles and wanks and you just get depressed for humanity.

But then something like this comes along and you get all excited again.

I've never participated in a fan campaign. Never. I didn't send hair gel to the WB or chip in for the gift basket - mainly because I had no money or was too lazy to do anything. But now I want to. Of course, I still have no money, but I can print out my two dollar bills and send them on their merry way.

I'm so excited to see all the VM fan efforts and the tenor of the fandom itself. It's shiny and new and relatively supportive; even the moments of opposition more often than not end up with a round of kum-ba-ya and pass the marshmallows.

It is, in fact, smurfy. I hope you don't mind my linking to this in my lj.

I've never participated in fan campaigns either. I'm a bad fan. Wait, maybe I did something once that tied in with a hunger thing? Can't remember. Anyway, it's nice how happy and pleasant you all are. I bet it would have been very much the same in the first few years of Buffy.

Btw, I really liked the last episode of VM that aired right before the break.